Battle of the long balls II.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Sat 19th January, 2013. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (West Mids). UK TV: None.
Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this afternoon’s game between Newcastle United and Reading from St James’ Park.
This of course will be the Magpies’ second encounter with Reading, the last one being a 2-2 draw at their place, the Madejski Stadium, at the end of September. Back then it was a battle of the long balls between Alan Pardew and his Reading protégé (though they are both 51), Brian “long balls” McDermott, who was a chief scout for Pardew in his first managerial job. Newcastle and Reading are the two biggest long ball sides in the Premiership so far, but thankfully, Pardew’s Magpies seemed to be settling into a style which is slightly less reliant on “route one” tactics in recent games, though in their last game against Norwich, a 0-0 bore draw, Newcastle showed some signs of reverting to their previous long ball ways. (more…)
Seagulls and Magpies battle for cup glory!Venue: Falmer Stadium, Brighton. Date: Sat 5th January, 2013. Kick off: 12.30pm. Referee: Lee Probert (Wilts). UK TV: ITV1.
It’s time for Newcastle to forget their Premiership trials and tribulations and take a trip to the seaside, to London by the Sea to be precise, or as it’s also known, Brighton.
This third round FA cup match sees Newcastle United facing a Brighton and Hove Albion who are currently 9th in the Championship, with a recent record which reads (most recent first) W|L|D|D|D|L. In last season of course, it was Brighton who knocked Newcastle United out of the competition. Like this afternoon, it was at their place, with the Seasgulls narrowly defeating us 1-0 with an own goal by Mike Williamson separating the two sides. Let’s hope that there isn’t a repeat this time.
Speaking in the run-up to the game, Brighton manager Gus Poyet certainly seems to be taking the game seriously. He said:
“This one is tricky because it’s against a very good team and on TV, but we won’t be silly and not play our best team.”(more…)
Another stiff test for the lads.Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Weds 2nd January, 2013. Kick off: 8.00pm. Referee: Martin Atkinson (Yorks). UK TV: Sky Sports.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” for this evening’s game against Everton at St James’ Park.
Of course, this will be our first game of 2013, and the last of what has been a very tricky trio of games over the Christmas and New Year holidays, with the Magpies conceeding a whopping eleven goals in the first two. Well here’s hoping that 2013 starts on a better note than 2012 ended!
It will be tough though. Despite a narrow defeat in their last game against Chelsea, Everton’s recent form has been very good, with the record in their last six games (most recent first) being L|W|W|D|W|D, leaving them at sixth in the Premiership table going into this game. On the other hand, our recent record has been L|L|W|L|L|L, though if you only count Premiership games, it has been L|L|W|L|L|W which is slightly more respectable. (more…)
Another tricky tie for the Christmas holiday.Venue: Ashburton Grove, N.London. Date: Sat 29th December, 2012. Kick off: 5.30pm. Referee: Chris Foy. UK TV: ESPN.
In the run up to this game, much of the emphasis has been on the rather petty spat between Alex Ferguson and Alan Pardew over Ferguson’s behaviour in our previous game with Manchester United, with the purple nosed supremo demeaning himself even further by making some rather childish comments about Newcastle United and Alan Pardew which I won’t go into here.
So it’s on with another tricky Christmas holiday fixture, another away one, this time against Arsenal. Before that however a quick note: Although I have posted this match banter, I will be busy during the game itself, hence I may not be able to publish the team sheets when they come out as usual. One more thing is links for the game. As you can see at the top, this game will broadcast live on ESPN in the UK, though if you can’t get it, you should be able to find some links to watch it online at http://www.wiziwig.tv and also http://www.footballstreaming.info. (more…)
Christmas stuffing?Venue: Old Trafford, Manchester. Date: Weds 26th December, 2012. Kick off: 3.00pm. Referee: Mike Dean (Wirral). UK TV: None.
“One clean sheet in 15 games offers us the opportunity and shows it is not impossible to score against them. We carry a threat. There is no doubt about that. We can score there and it is going to be about how we defend really. I think we will get a goal. United have been vulnerable all year defensively. Some of their goals with the back four and the goalkeeper have not been as secure as teams of the past. Sir Alex Ferguson has been quoted as saying that.”
That’s what Newcastle United’s Silver Supremo, Alan Pardew has been saying in the run up to this game.
The problem Professor Pardew’s hypothesis though is that whilst Manchester United have let in more goals than any other team in the top four this season (25), they have also let in one fewer than we have (26). On the other hand however, they are also the highest scorers in the Premiership by far. They have scored eight more goals than the second highest scoring team in the Premiership (Chelsea with 36), and well over twice as many goals as we have so far this season (20 goals to their 44). Hence, we may have a few problems with the “it is going to be about how we defend really” part of Pardew’s pronouncement. We may defend well and still let one or two in against old purple nose’s “Red Devils!” As if this wasn’t enough, we also haven’t won at Old Trafford in any competition for the past 40 years!
